Dubai Restricts Israeli Entry After Killing

By

Joshua Mitnick

Updated March 1, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET

TEL AVIV—Dubai's police chief said it will enforce an entry ban on Israeli dual nationals, the first sanction by the emirate following its allegations Israeli intelligence agents murdered a top Hamas leader there in January.

Though the countries have no diplomatic ties, Israeli dual nationals, mostly business people, have entered the United Arab Emirates relatively unhindered under second passports.

The Emirates will seek to identify Israelis by "physical features and the way they speak.'' said Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim.

A spokesman for the Israeli prime minister's office declined to comment on the announcement.

Shunned throughout most of the Arab world, Israel prizes even the most minimal trapping of normalization with any country the Middle East.

"This is a harsh step,'' said Yoav Stern, an expert on the Arab world at the Peres Center for Peace in Tel Aviv.

Israeli officials have either denied or withheld comment on allegations that the Mossad intelligence agency played a role in the killing of Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhoub in a Dubai hotel room.

Gen. Tamim has said there is a "99%" chance that Israel was behind the killing.

As details of the case trickled out of Dubai, some commentators in Israel and abroad, assuming Mossad involvement, criticized the agency for underestimating the ability of Dubai police to piece together the hit. Dubai authorities identified a team of 26 suspects on closed-circuit TV—some of them disguised in wigs and beards, or carrying tennis rackets.

But many Israelis rallied around Mossad, and during the Jewish festival of Purim, which ended Monday, some Israelis mimicked the suspects' disguises.

Purim is a holiday of public merriment, marking the foiling of a plot by an ancient Persian minister to annihilate the Jewish people. It is customary to dress up in costumes at parties, at readings of the biblical book of Esther, and on the streets.

Rami Patimer, owner of a Tel Aviv costume store, said customers were showing up in groups with newspaper clippings and suspects' photos. Popular items: Wigs, fake mustaches and tennis socks, like those worn by the Dubai suspects on video. "Everyone wants to be a hero," he said. "It's Israeli pride."

Israeli officials have expressed satisfaction that Mr. Mabhouh is dead. He had been sought by Israel for planning the kidnapping and killing of two Israeli soldiers in 1987, an allegation Hamas hasn't contested. After news of the killing, Israeli security officials said they believed Mr. Mabhouh was also involved in weapons smuggling between Iran and the Hamas- controlled Gaza Strip.

Last week, Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni called the assassination "good news." On Sunday, the country's trade minister, Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, told Army Radio that he had no idea who killed Mr. Mabhouh, but he also appeared to use the killing to put Hamas on notice: "None of their people are untouchable," he said. "They can all be reached."

The killing, and Israel's fascination with it, have also become fodder for Israeli comedy shows on radio and TV.

In a mock news interview on the weekly television satire, "Eretz Nehederet," Mossad assassins bicker with one another about their cover names and the room-service bill in Dubai.

"I don't know about you, but I can't wait for our next assassination," says a mock Israeli news analyst on the show.

"Everyone always revered the Mossad, and now when you see it in real life like a James Bond movie everyone is fascinated," said Israeli pollster
Mitchell Barak.
"It looks very glamorous when it's live TV."

The prime minister's office, which has direct authority over Mossad, didn't respond to requests to comment.

Officials from Australia and European nations—whose passports Dubai has linked to the killing—haven't blamed Israel, but have demanded Israeli help in determining how their passports were used in the case. U.K. investigators were at work in Israel on Monday.

In Europe, the case created a diplomatic furor after Dubai police released passport information for 26 European and Australian citizens viewed as suspects. Most of those identified quickly surfaced, and the issuing governments said it appeared identities were stolen to produce fraudulent passports.

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